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The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) vs. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka - WrestleMania VII, March 24, 1991

And it all begins at a Mania that was pretty much a fiasco. The show was supposed to take place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but the official story is a "bomb threat" (snicker) saw it moved to the much smaller L.A. Sports Arena instead. In reality, most everyone not named "McMahon" admits the ticket sales were terrible, spurred on by a main event angle that exploited the Gulf War. The show had one all-time great contest (Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior in a "Career-Ending" Match -- double snicker), but otherwise would be mostly a footnote in wrestling history if it wasn't for the Mania debut of the Dead Man.

The significance of the match has been inflated by WWE's history, as well. They tell the tale of Taker beating a legend in his first outing, but Snuka was at the tail end of his WWF run here, and this was basically a farewell job to put the next big thing over. Jimmy's wearing boots and a goatee, both of which make you do a double-take and wonder if it's really him.

Taker is a mere four months into his WWF run, and is still pretty green as a wrestler. Then again, "pretty green" is a relative term from that era of wrestling to now -- Mark Callaway began wrestling back in 1984, making him a seven-year veteran by the time of this match. Nowadays, guys way younger get rushed up to the main roster within six months of training. No one has any patience. If they'd done that with the Taker, maybe he never gets over, maybe he gets dropped and maybe an entire era of wrestling never happens.

For a guy who's supposed to be a monster heel, Taker's already getting a lot of cheers as he enters. They throw in a buncha shots of kids being scared of him to try and counteract it, but it just kinda underscores how awesome his aura is. Taker's in his old school black trunks and shirt with grey gloves, and accompanied by new manager Paul Bearer (positively svelte here), who'd been introduced just a few weeks prior. Paul replaced Taker's original manager, Brother Love. No, I'm NOT kidding. Oh, and another fun fact -- Taker was introed at Survivor Series as just "The Undertaker," but someone decided he needed a proper name, as well. So for a few weeks, they called him "Kane The Undertaker." Really. Life is weird.

Long standing and staring moment right after the opening bell. Crowd "Hoo!"s for Snuka. Taker attacks from behind to start off, nailing Jimmy with punches and kicks in the corner. Another fun fact: Snuka's pet name from the announcers is "The Phenom," which would eventually be usurped by Taker. More slow domination by the Dead Man, followed by his wicked flying clothesline, which remains one his pet moves. Damn, he gets some height on that.

More slow dominance with chokes and stuff, as Snuka's gotten no offense yet. He finally reverses a whip into the corner, but a big boot from Taker sends him to the floor. Paul, cheering him on, clearly hasn't decided to take his voice into its later breaking-glass-falsetto range yet. Taker suplexes Snuka back in, but a big elbow misses, finally giving Superfly an opening. Snuka hits a few shots and headbutts, which Taker sells like he's being lightly tapped with a whiffle ball bat. Snuka tries a whip but it gets reversed, and Taker casually moves out of the way of a Jimmy dive, sending Snuka barrelling over the top to the floor.

Snuka tries to catch Taker with some shots and a headbutt as he's coming back in, then slingshots off the top...and gets caught. Snuka was supposed to go straight from that into the Tombstone, which would have been damn impressive, but Jimmy didn't get up high enough for it to work. So Taker has to PUT HIM DOWN, punch him, and then pick him up normally for the Tombstone for the pin. Sloppy ending aside, this was a basic, by-the-numbers squash to put the new monster heel over. Wouldn't be noteworthy if it hadn't been for what it started.